After the Taliban rulers of the nation instructed all NGOs to forbid the employment of women personnel, Christian Relief and ActionAid became the most recent foreign aid organisations to halt activities in Afghanistan on Monday.
The two organisations’ announcements bring the total number of organisations that have halted operations in the nation to six.
Christian Aid’s head of worldwide programmes, Ray Hasan, stated in a statement that the organisation was “urgently seeking clarification… and pushing the authorities to rescind the restriction.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, we are suspending the work of our programmes while we do this.”
If women were not allowed to work for the organisation, according to ActionAid, “we would not be able to reach out to the half of the population that is already reeling from hunger.”
ActionAid stated in a statement that it had made the difficult choice to temporarily cease the majority of its programmes in Afghanistan until a clearer picture could be seen.
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On Sunday, CARE, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council all said that they were stopping their work.
The International Rescue Committee, which gives emergency help in health, education, and other areas and employs 3,000 women in Afghanistan, also said it would stop doing business.
According to Christian Aid’s Hasan, “millions of people in Afghanistan are on the verge of hunger.”
He said that a restriction on women aid workers would “only curtail our ability to support the growing number of people in need,” citing reports that families were so desperate that they were compelled to sell their children to purchase food.
Since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan last year, the restriction marks the most recent setback for women’s rights in the country.
Extreme Islamists also made it illegal for women to go to college less than a week ago, which caused uproar around the world and protests in some Afghan cities.
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